Today we headed for the National Park Tortuguero, but our first stop was breakfast.
We found a small ´´Soda´´ stand where you can get cheap food. The food was fantastic.
Shelley had a pastry filled with cinnamon and sugar. Next, we headed to the
National Park to hike the only non-aquatic trail the park has. We were informed
that we had to rent rubber boots, $1 a pair, before they would let us go into
the forest. It was a worthy investment because the trail was very muddy. On
our hike we found lots of colorful spiders, birds and lizards. The trail lead
us to the beach then back into the rain forest. On the beach we saw turtle tacks
from the night before. After studying the tracks we were able to determine which
direction the turtle was headed. One set of tracks showed a turtle had gone
half way up the beach then turned around. We think that she arrived as the sun
was coming up and it was too late to lay eggs. We also found some turtle eggs
that had already hatched. We were not fortunate enough to see any babies. The
National Park has tons of canals running though it, so we rented a canoe for
3 hours and paddled around the park. We spotted monkeys right on the edge of
the river eating leaves. Shelley was in the front of the boat and got mad when
I brought her within a couple of feet of the monkeys, but we got some great
photos. We spotted a tiny piece of land through the dense riverside jungle so
I jumped out of the canoe, got muddy and went frog hunting. I found a few tree
frogs while Shelley took pictures from the comfort of the canoe, we were both
happy.
Almost forgot! As we were walking I head a loud thump and saw a bird fall from the sky. I was lying on its back so I went over and picked it up. It had a bird band and did not seem to have any injuries so I leg go and it flew away perfectly.
